The present invention relates to an envelope opening device for opening an envelope with an entrance opening defined by a first wall and by a second wall covering said first wall except at least for a portion thereof, said device including a support for said envelope and opening means to move said first and second walls of said envelope apart from one another when carried by said support.
Such an envelope opening device is already known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,325,455. In this known device the opening means to move the first and second walls of an envelope apart from one another include suction members operating on these walls to open the envelope and fingers introduced in the thus opened envelope and engaging the lateral edges thereof to hold the envelope spread lengthwise. A drawback of this known device is the use of suction members because they seriously limit the operation speed of the device.